


A Battle of Life and Death

by CatsOrDogs



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Blood, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:28:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24931543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatsOrDogs/pseuds/CatsOrDogs
Summary: Soraka is an ancient being, but even she is not above foolish mistakes
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	A Battle of Life and Death

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still getting used to writing, so I'd love to hear any feedback about this scenario for a couple of interesting League characters!

Lee was dying. His breaths came out, shallow and slow, as he lay on his back on a dirt road. Noxian bastards, they had come out of nowhere. They leapt out of the trees in a merciless ambush, converging on the carriage full of supplies he and his fellow soldiers had been tasked with escorting back to Demacia. They made off with the carriage and made quick work out of his companions. Why they hadn’t killed Lee on the spot, he didn't know. Maybe they hadn't noticed his light breathing and assumed he had died, maybe it was an act of cruelty to knowingly let him succumb to his wounds alone in a forest. It didn’t really matter now.

Lee stared up at the sky as his senses began to fade. He could feel his heart beating a little slower. The sound of his ragged breathing faded in and out of his ears. The pain in his chest lessened as his mind glazed over, feeling almost weightless as more of his blood sank out of his body and into the ground.

In what he knew were his final moments, he took a moment to acknowledge his surroundings. It really was actually quite a lovely view, all things considered. The cloudless blue sky, the bright green trees, the purple woman with a long horn at the center of her forehead.

“...what…”

Circling in and out of his fading vision was the violet face of a woman, with long grey hair and an alabaster horn growing from her head. Lee had no idea who or what she was, and was almost certain she was just a hallucination brought on from blood loss, but all the same he couldn't help but feel a strange sense of relief at her presence. As if just her being here was washing away all his worries, reassuring him everything would be alright.

She gave him a motherly smile, and Lee was dimly aware of her taking his bloodied hand into her lilac one. He let out a gasp as an icy-cold feeling ran up his arm and into his chest, anchoring him back into his body. His mind cleared, and with it came all the pain he hadn't felt while his body was shutting down. It hurt, but in that pain he found clarity. This woman was real. And she was healing him.

Hope began to take form as she continued to usher her power into his body, and Lee grit his teeth as the pain was brought into razor-sharp focus. But he would bear it. He would hold on to the second chance at life granted to him by some miracle.

An agonizing minute passed, and the woman’s brow furrowed. Frustration and confusion clouded her face as she continued her efforts, but aside from regaining a better hold on his mind and senses Lee was in no better condition than when she had started. And then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw them.

A lithe lamb with snow white fur stood on hind legs, clutching a silver bow. Its face was obscured by a black mask resembling a wolf. Circling around her was a smoky black shadow, an almost formless and featureless body leading up to the head of a wolf. The top half of its face was covered by a mask resembling a lamb, the bottom half revealing a dripping maw filled with horrifically sharp teeth.

Lee had never seen anything like it before in his life, and yet the moment he saw them he instantly knew what they were.

“Kindred,” the name coming from his lips in a shaky whisper.

The woman’s hand tightened around Lee’s as she followed his gaze to find the hunters staring at the two of them from a short distance away.

Every soldier knew of Kindred, and Lee was no different. In their final moments, when a soldier falls in battle, Kindred will appear and offer a choice. Go peacefully from this life, and be allotted a swift and painless end from Lamb’s bow and arrow. Resist, and have your life forcefully choked from you by the eager jaws of Wolf. It is said that once Kindred appears before you, there is no hope. No chance at survival. No dream of salvation. It was Demacian tradition to welcome Lamb’s bow with open arms, and leave this life with grace and dignity. And yet…

Lee could see the spark of determination in the woman’s amber eyes, as the chilling power intensified in his veins. She was intent on saving him. Through her ambition Lee made the decision to cling to life until the very end. This magical being would save him. He would survive. He would be the first man to escape the jaws of-

Soraka’s face twisted in anguish as Wolf leapt to the dying man, eagerly ripping its jaws into his throat. Bloody ribbons flew into the air as Wolf relished in its kill. When the light in Lee’s eyes had faded, and all that was left was a bloody mess, a satisfied Wolf slinked back to Lamb.

“A pity”, said Lamb. Its voice sounded like tinkling bells, fresh snow falling on soft ground. ”If not for your interference, he wouldn't have thought to resist. He could have met my arrow without being put through so much pain and suffering.”

Lamb’s words were sympathetic, but its voice was despondent. How could an agent of death feel any differently, after all.

Soraka rose to her feet without a word. She had known, deep down she had known, that the moment Kindred had appeared that there was nothing left to be done. Kindred were only slated to appear when one's death was certain, when The Fates had decreed that a being's life would end regardless of the efforts made to save it. She should have stopped the moment they had come, and saved that poor man the cruelty of giving false hope.

But despite knowing this, how could she not have tried? This was her purpose, to nurture and protect humanity wherever she could. If she couldn’t even save a single person...then what good was she?

Kindred vanished, leaving as swiftly as they had come, and Soraka was left alone with her mistake.


End file.
